It is a rainy day and I have nothing planned

I got the outside stuff done and that is good. I just looked outside and the scud is moving pretty fast so it might clear up soon.

Last night I heard that another guy out there bought a PRC 320 probably because he figured out I was having so much fun with mine. (The fool.)

I'll keep tabs on him and see how he makes out.

Like me it is his first HF rig but I knew what I was getting into as I pulled a hitch with Uncle Sam and remember GI radios. I was also an SWL for years. I also have pretty good instincts with GI equipment.

My guess is that this guy is either going to be completely elated with the little rig or severely disappointed. Time will tell.

I went into the military radio game KNOWING that I was going to be going into it under gunned. I knew the rig was low power and had has no cool ham radio features like being able to scan a band. You have to go straight to the frequency you want and have to know in advance because if not there are 6 dials and finding action on a band is an awful lot like trying to open a combination lock by trying all the possibilities.0-0-1,0-0-2,0-0-3, ad nauseum.

You have to do your homework with a rig like this.

Of course in this day and age it is not all that hard if you are on line. Let's see here. Google. 40 meter nets...here's one, the SSB old geezers net, meets at 0100 utc. Cool!

But you also lose out of being able to scan a band easily and find individual hams out there with less hassle.

I knew all of this going in and decided to go the route aware of the frustrations because I like entering things with a handicap for some perverse reason I can not seem to figure out.

Maybe it makes the victories sweeter. Who knows?

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Yesterday I witnessed the new trash system in action and it looks to me like it is going to take some diong to train the new guys. It is a mechanized system. The removal of yard waste was interesting. Instead of dumping the can directly into the truck it gets dumped into a hopper in front of the truck where the driver inspects it and then dumps it into the truck.

I got that one figured out.

You put the old deer carcass (whatever) on the top of the bin and when the driver empties it into the hopper the leaves etc cover it and than he dumps it into the truck.

Trash itself is not going to be quite as big a hassle as I thought. The can is big enough and goes directly into the back of the truck and if you don't overload it with concrete so the bottom falls out it looks like you can stuff just about anything you want into it with no problem.

I suppose you can just cut tires in half. The new code is now 'some disassembly required'. I guess if it fits into the can it is good to go.

Still, I already miss the old guys that used to haul anything I put on the curb away with no second glance.
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One of the things I have learned to do is open packages outside. I have done this ever since I got a soccer ball off of eBay for a nephew and it arriced wrapped in 12 layers of bubble wrap and stuffed into a box stuffed FULL of packing peanuts. Why people do this is beyond me because the instant my nephew got the damned ball he booted it forty yards.

Still, when I opened it the insides about liked to explode and I suppose that if I look hard enough I'll STILL find an odd packing peanut somewhere.
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